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Ambassador for Health
Terrie Taylor, D.O., University Distinguished Professor

by Steven D. Bevier

Earlier this year, MSUCOM’s Associate Dean for Research Justin McCormick, Ph.D., was on the phone with a young researcher who was trying to contact Terrie Taylor, D.O. Before hanging up the caller asked, “What is the name of Dr. Taylor’s professorship?”

That Dr. Taylor did not already hold a named professorship came as a surprise to the caller and was a reminder to Dr. McCormick that such an honor was long overdue. That oversight was recently corrected when Dr. Taylor was named an MSU University Distinguished Professor.

Through her work with severe childhood malaria in Africa, Dr. Taylor has earned a worldwide reputation as an outstanding researcher, teacher and caregiver. Her nomination was authored by Dr. McCormick and endorsed by three other University Distinguished Professors.

The University Distinguished Professorship is a lifelong title and is the highest honor that Michigan State can bestow upon a faculty member. In addition to the title and a ceremony in October, honorees receive $5,000 a year for the next five years to be used toward a research project of their choice.

“Dr. Taylor is a great ambassador for MSU,” says Interim President and Provost Lou Anna K. Simon. “Her work not only enhances the university’s scientific reputation, it exemplifies our commitment to generate and share knowledge in the vital areas of international health and education. Most important, she has improved the lives of thousands of patients."

Dr. Taylor began her career at MSU in 1982. She was a new graduate from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, and she was offered a job by MSUCOM’s Dean Myron S. Magen, D.O., F.A.C.O.P. The job was not in East Lansing however, but in Sudan, where she was sent to work on a parasitology research project. Dean Magen was looking to expand the international health profile of the college, and he found the perfect candidate in Dr. Taylor.

“At the time, I wasn’t planning on going into tropical medicine,” she says. “I was just looking for something fun and interesting.” She spent a year in Sudan and had found her calling.

Dr. Taylor decided to pursue tropical medicine research full time. With MSUCOM’s support, she enrolled at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in England, where she earned a master’s degree in tropical medicine in 1986. She was told by Dean Magen that if she came back from England with a research project in a developing country that would be hospitable to MSUCOM students on elective, there would be a job for her at MSU. Her research for the M.Trop.Med. degree took her to Malawi. The Ministry of Health there identified “severe malaria in children” as a priority, and Malcolm Molyneux, a faculty member at the “trop shop” with years of experience in Malawi, was willing to join the effort.

Dr. Taylor joined the MSUCOM faculty and at the same time she and Professor Molyneux established the Malaria Research Project in Blantyre, Malawi’s largest city. Since 1986, Dr. Taylor and her fellow researchers have dedicated themselves to a better understanding of the disease. The results have been outstanding.

In Malawi, malaria is a fact of everyday life. Most Malawian adults get malaria two or three times a year, but because they have developed immunity to severe disease, their symptoms are treatable and most patients make speedy recoveries. However, children are at great risk for more severe forms of the disease, one of which is known as cerebral malaria. Patients with cerebral malaria fall into comas, which can lead to brain damage and death.

Through years of patient study and clinical trials, malaria research in Malawi has yielded new drugs and improved treatment schedules. One important development is the creation of the Blantyre Coma Score, which allows clinicians to grade the severity of the coma, and use that grade to monitor the progress of patients. Dr. Taylor recently began an extensive autopsy study that should give scientists their greatest insight yet into how malaria affects the body. “The disease itself is very fascinating,” she says.

Dr. Taylor operates out of the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, which is also a teaching hospital for the Malawi College of Medicine. The project has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, among other sources. Several MSUCOM students journey to Malawi each year to study with Dr. Taylor and gain experience in tropical medicine.

Each year, Dr. Taylor is in Malawi from January to June – during the rainy season when malaria is at its peak – treating patients and gathering data. The other six months of the year, she returns to East Lansing to analyze her research, write about her findings and teach students at MSUCOM. She has maintained this schedule for 17 years and has no plans to give it up anytime soon.

“My work is very entertaining and I enjoy the patients and families that I deal with,” Dr. Taylor adds. “In Malawi, there’s no interference from insurance companies or lawyers. It’s just you and the patients. That’s the reason you go to medical school.”